Bobby could stand no more. He flung himself forward, around the corner of the great desk. He grabbed at the Doctor's coatsleeve before he could swim away from him again.
"My mother! my father! You've heard—?"
"They're all right, Robert! they're all right!" exclaimed the Doctor—and did his voice break strangely as he said it? "There, there, my boy! They're safe as can be and here's a whole packet of letters for you from them. Don't cry, my boy—"
But Bobby wasn't crying. It seemed to him that he never should cry again.
"Tell me!" he gasped, still clinging to the Doctor's arm. "Did—did she get her feet wet? Or is she all right? She didn't get the—the bron-skeeters, did she? Father was always afraid of that, if she got cold."
CHAPTER XXIV
RED HAIR STANDS FOR MORE THAN TEMPER
June had come. The regatta on Monatook Lake was but a few days away; Commencement followed. Even the boys of the Lower School were working hard to make up lost lessons these days.
Captain Gray was to graduate, and with him Max Bender and five of the other big boys. There would be at least seven new scholars to come to Rockledge the next September, for there were never less than fifty boys at the school and—as has been said—Dr. Raymond always had a waiting list.
Mr. Leith devoted most of his time to the older boys; but every fortnight, at least, he went over the reports of the entire school. He was a stiff and stern master, but he considered himself just. For that reason he called Bobby Blake to his desk one day and said: